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Super shotgun
The super shotgun, also called "combat shotgun" in the manuals or otherwise "stoeger coach gun" or simply "double-barreled shotgun", or often abbreviated to "SSG", and is a sawn-off, break-open, double-barreled shotgun, in contrast to the original shotgun which is pump-action and single-barreled. Not featured in Doom, the super shotgun was the only new weapon introduced in Doom II, appearing first on MAP02: Underhalls in single player mode, and in two locations on MAP01: Entryway during multiplayer games. A super shotgun uses the same ammo is the original shotgun from the original Doom. The super shotgun contains 8 shells when picked up (or 16 on the "I'm Too Young To Die" and "Nightmare!" skill levels). This handy weapon is also in Doom 3 Resurrection of Evil, click the link above for more info on it. Combat characteristics The super shotgun takes the same ammunition as the shotgun, but uses two shells per shot. However, whereas the shotgun fires 7 pellets in each shot, a super shotgun blast has 20 pellets. The super shotgun causes much more damage than the original shotgun. Each pellet still does 5-15 points of damage (for a total of 100-300 points of damage per shot, provided that all pellets hit the target). The super shotgun is thus nearly three times as damaging as the standard shotgun per shot, a good bargain since it only uses twice as much ammo each time. Tactical analysis One well-aimed blast almost always kills two imps, one demon, or one spectre, and often inflicts additional damage to nearby monsters, whereas a shotgun burst is less reliable at dispatching an imp in one shot or a demon in two. The devastating firepower afforded by the super shotgun can enable the player to hold his own against crowds of humanoids or tough monsters (hell knights, arachnotrons, mancubi). It is often sensible to prefer the super shotgun over the rocket launcher in such situations; the super shotgun is similarly powerful, shells are more plentiful than rockets, and a short-range rocket blast can harm the player. The SSG is even slower to reload than the shotgun (approximately twice the time), meaning that any enemy not killed by the first shot will have plenty of time to retaliate. Some speedrunners, however, take advantage of the reload time by quickly circlestrafing to line up multiple monsters within the "damage cone". The blast-and-dodge and circle strafing tactics described for the shotgun are even more useful for the super shotgun. The wide spread of the pellets makes the super shotgun ineffective and wasteful at longer ranges. If shells are the only plentiful ammo, or if sniping at a distance is required, it is advisable to switch back to the shotgun. Furthermore the shotgun pellets only spread horizontally which makes it more useful than SSG in cases where your line of sight to the monster is a narrow horizontal part of the monster. The super shotgun also becomes overkill and wasteful for dealing with lone humanoids scattered in mazes. This is usually a problem when starting a level and the super shotgun is picked up before the regular shotgun. Regardless, the SSG is a very potent and powerful weapon in the right hands, and it serves as a great alternative for the bigger weapons when facing lone enemies smaller than a baron of hell. Notes * Unlike the other weapon firing/loading animations which were created from digitizing models, the super shotgun's sequences appear to be drawn instead since they lack the light reflections. * When a player has both the shotgun and the super shotgun, the 3 key will toggle between the two weapons. However, the number "3" in the ARMS section of the status bar responds only to the original shotgun, and will not light if the player has only the super shotgun. This behavior is exclusive to Doom II. If the super shotgun is somehow introduced in a level for the first Doom, the weapon may be picked up, appearing on the marine's hands, but cannot be selected afterward once the user chooses another available weapon, or the player runs out of shells. * In the Playstation and Saturn ports of Doom the Super Shotgun takes up a number "4" slot in the ARMS section, making a total of 8 numbers present instead of 7. In that regard the Super Shotgun appears next when cycling through the weapons in those ports, as well as Doom 64. However, while weapons have to be cyclically accessed in the Xbox version of Doom II (from the Xbox port of Doom 3), the Super Shotgun instead sits between the Chainsaw and the Fist (the list from start to finish goes: Fist, Pistol, Shotgun, Chaingun, Rocket Launcher, Plasma Gun, BFG9000, Chainsaw, Super Shotgun, and back to Fist) * In Doom RPG, It is found in a secret room in Ore Processing, supposedly a gift from one staffmember to another because the said gifter could not get a gaming console. He describes the shotgun as "something less 'virtual'." * In the Saturn port, the Super Shotgun fires much faster than in other ports. *In Doom Classic the Super Shotgun appears on the weapons list as "dblshotgun", but it is not possible to get the super shotgun in the original Doom. However, in the PS and Saturn Port, it can be used in Ultimate Doom by using the 'All Weapons' cheat code. Data #This table assumes that all calls to P_Random for damage, pain chance, blood splats, and pellet dispersal are consecutive. In real play, this is never the case: counterattacks and AI pathfinding must be handled, and of course the map may contain additional moving monsters and other randomized phenomena (such as flickering lights). Any resulting errors are probably toward the single-shot average, as they introduce noise into the correlation between the indices of "consecutive" calls. #Assumes that target is close enough to be hit by every pellet (this is, however, extremely rare in real play, especially during speedruns). #Assumes that direct hits are possible, which does not occur in any stock map. Appearance statistics The IWADs contain the following numbers of super shotguns: Other id Software games After it's introduction in Doom 2, the side by side double-barreled shotgun became a mainstay in both the Doom and Quake series. It serves as a slow reloading, but powerful close-range weapon. Doom 64 In Doom 64, the super shotgun reloads much quicker, nearly as fast as the regular shotgun. It does not have the reloading animation that is present in the PC versions of Doom either, which is also the case with the normal shotgun. In addition, the gun knocks the player back a bit when fired. Doom 3 The Super shotgun was re-introduced in the Doom 3 expansion pack Resurrection of Evil. It originally belonged to Sergeant Thomas Kelly and can be found in his office. Quake series In Quake the Double-Barrelled Shotgun is the main close-range weapon. The rate of fire is noticeably higher in comparison to the Doom 2 Super shotgun. Quake II has the Super Shotgun with a rather unusual pump-action reload mechanism. In Quake III Arena, the double-barreled Shotgun is the only shotgun in the arsenal.